Poor strategic communications makes for poor results. On August 28, 2014, President Obama held a press conference in which he said, in response to a question on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), that he had “no strategy”. This was the wrong message at the wrong time. His spokespersons later went on […]
Recently the Internet has been obsessed with a campaign to raise funds for the campaign to fight ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) that has, in fact, raised over $88 million to fund research. It has consisted of encouraging people to dump a bucket of ice water over their heads and challenge their friends to do the […]
Live your message. Integrity means living your message, whether as an individual or as an organization. By living your messages you will convince your audience of their veracity and relevance. Your messages must be congruent with your behavior. Any discrepancy will eliminate your credibility as a spokesperson. Touch your audience with your stories, messages, and […]
Robin Williams died August 11, 2014. He was a great teacher, and an outstanding and creative communicator. Every generation seems to have one comedian who transcends comedy and creates new worlds for us spontaneously, seemingly without effort, improvising completely and gloriously. Our parent’s generation had Jonathan Winters, while ours had, for all too brief a […]
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is murdering large numbers of Christians, Yazidis, and moderate Sunni and Shiite Muslims in an attempt to ethnically cleanse the areas of Iraq and Syria under its control. This has led President Obama to authorize a number of airstrikes on ISIS positions threatening enclaves to which […]
It is August 6, 2014, and I am watching President Obama’s press conference at the end of the US-Africa Summit. I have now watched him answer six different questions, and each of his responses lasts over four minutes. There is a good amount of rambling on the one hand, and much too much detail for […]
When I joined the Canadian Foreign Service many years ago, I was pleased to work closely with a brilliant senior officer who had not only a breadth and depth of experience, but a broad knowledge of a wide array of issues. He was always brimming with original ideas and insights. His only problem was that […]